08/04/2010

How to Make A Blueberry Pie

When it comes to making fruit pie, I think everyone should start with Blueberry.

To prepare the fruit, all you have to do is rinse it in a colander, pick out the bad ones, and check for stems.

No pitting, no peeling, no slicing. (Although, if you decide to try Cherry Pie, I have a tip for you - the end of the potato peeler that you use to take the eyes out of the potato is a perfect cherry pitter. Don't waste money on another expensive gadget for your kitchen.)

So, the easiest pie on the planet is a Blueberry Pie made with a roll out refrigerated crust.

IF you want to try your hand at a scratch crust, the following is a pretty foolproof recipe I came up with after some tinkering.

Step one: Measure your pie pan. Most are either 8 or 9 inches in diameter. (Tip: I often make the crust for a nine inch pan when I'll really be using an 8 inch one - it gives me enough leftover dough to compensate for mistakes. It also lets my daughter make "pie crust cookies" out of the extra dough. Before I hit on this little bonus, she was pretty uninterested in helping me make pie.)

Step two: pick your crust recipe - these are both for two crust pies that means top and bottom crust.

8 Inch Crust

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup salted butter - chilled

1/4 cup shortening - I have found Crisco to actually be superior to the

store brand - dangit!

3 Tbsp. very cold water

9 Inch Crust

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup salted butter - chilled

1/3 cup shortening

4 Tbsp. very cold water.

Step three: put the salt and flour into a mixing bowl - my favorite is my old pyrex - it keeps the butter cold - and whisk them lightly until they are combined.

Step four: add the chilled butter in small pieces Tip: I use an egg slicer - the kind you use for hard boiled eggs - to cut the butter into small pieces. First I cut off a slice about the size of a butter pat at a restaurant, then I push it through the slicer. This gives you small pieces in about half the time of any other method and helps keep the butter from thawing.

Step five: mash the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter.

This is my favorite kind - the old fashioned wire one. The new ones are like knife blades and you can cut yourself on them when you're trying to get all the residue off. Keep cutting the butter into the flour, making sure to get all the flour from the edges of the bowl, until the whole thing resembles cornmeal. (A note here about food processors - a lot of people use a food processor for this step - I don't for 2 reasons. 1) I find the pastry cutter and bowl a whole lot easier to clean up after than all the parts of a food processor and 2) when I tried one, the crust was tougher - maybe it overworked the dough.)

Step six: add the shortening and do the same thing all over again until the mixture resembles lumps the size of peas. This two step process comes straight out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook - they say adding the shortening in two steps makes a tender (first time) and flaky (second time) crust.

Step seven: sprinkle in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, gently fluffing the mixture with a fork between each addition. This is important - you don't want to stir the water in - it will create damp, pasty, unworkable spots.

Step eight: gather the dough together by gently mushing it to one side of the bowl - almost as if it were playdough. Then turn it all out on a good sized piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic wrap to gather the dough into a ball. This allows you to further smoosh together the dough without touching it with your hands - another thing that can make a crust tough is touching it too much with your hands.

Step nine: open the plastic wrap and, with a butter knife, cut the dough into two equal sized pieces

Step ten: put 1/2 the dough, cut side down, onto a new piece of plastic wrap

Step eleven: using the plastic wrap as before to shape the dough, form it into a disk about 5 inches in diameter and 3/4 of an inch thick. Make sure it's fully encased in the plastic wrap - use another piece if necessary, and put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

I know all this sounds complicated, but it all really takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. After you've done it once, it's amazingly easy.

The Filling

While the dough is chilling, you can prepare the blueberries. I use about 2 pints of berries for an 8 inch pie.

Step one: Rinse the berries in cold water in a colander and throw out any bad ones. Also look for little tiny stems and get rid of those. Let them drain.

Step two: have some softened butter standing by for later

Step three: in a small bowl, whisk together:

1 cup sugar

1/4 to 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

When the dough is done chilling, set it out on the counter for about 5 minutes. You don't want to wait until it's all the way back to room temperature, but it's a little easier to work with if you don't try to roll it straight out of the fridge.

Now would also be a good time to turn on your oven. All ovens are different so it may take you a few pies to figure out your best temperature - I set mine at 365 F.

Now comes the tricky part and where I'm going to use a lot of pictures to show what can go wrong and how to fix it.

First - I have learned that you are only as good as your tools. What I am about to tell you, I have never seen mentioned by any cooking show - I found it in the BCC and I swear it is the most important component of my crust - A PASTRY CLOTH AND PASTRY SOCK. These are not that hard to find on the internet and boy, are they worth it! You cover the rolling pin with the sock and spread out the cloth on your work surface. Dust them both lightly with flour. The main thing they help with is keeping you from having to add a boatload of extra flour to your work surfaces and, ultimately, your dough. The more extra flour goes into your dough, the tougher it will be.

Next, when the dough comes out of the fridge, it frequently looks something like this:

Don't panic!

Using the plastic wrap as you did before, gradually work all the cracks together until the dough looks smooth and crack free.

Now turn it gently onto your floured pastry cloth and start rolling it out. Don't be in too much of a hurry - speed makes cracks.

If the dough begins to crack again, gently push it back together - ignoring cracks only leads to bigger cracks. This is another reason to make a 9 inch crust for an 8 inch pie, you can ignore a little bit what the edges of the dough look like.

Roll the dough out until it is about 10 or 11 inches in diameter and relatively thin.

Now you need something to cut around - the lid to my flour container is about the same size as my pie dish - you might want to use a dinner plate.

Set the template (plate) lightly onto the crust and trim about an inch from the edge of the template.

It should look like this.

Now to get the crust into the pan without breaking it. Another BCC tip:

Lightly set your rolling pin onto the crust and pick up the edge of the pastry cloth. Gradually tip the crust up onto the rolling pin and drape it into the pan. Be careful how you position the rolling pin over the pan - you won't be able to pick the crust up to move it. If it doesn't go exactly where you want it, gently slide it into position.

If it cracks like this, gently push it back together with your fingers - it's the bottom of the pie - no one will ever know!

Sometimes you get breaks or holes that can be patched. Just insert a piece of dough left over from the trimming and push it into place. Pampered Chef actually makes a tool for rolling out dough in the pan - I use mine all the time.

Now you're ready to deal with the filling.

Take about a third of the blueberries and put them in a separate bowl. Coat them with some of the sugar/flour mixture, tossing them and adding sugar/flour until they are all coated generously.

Then put them into the pie crust. Add a little more of the sugar/flour mixture over the top of the berries after you put them in the pan. Do the same two more times with the rest of the berries and sugar/flour mixture. For a tart pie, add a little lemon juice at this point. (I always skip this step - I find the blueberries to be plenty tart enough) Then dot the top with some softened butter. I use about 3 tablespoon sized dollops. Too much butter will not add to the flavor, it will only make the pie runny.

At this point, the easiest thing to do is roll out another crust for the top, drape it over the berries and pinch it together. Then cut some venting slits into the top and bake for about 45 minutes until it is bubbly and juicy.

If you're up for more of a challenge, you can attempt a lattice crust. It's tricky but it tastes better, in my opinion. Higher berry to crust ratio.

Roll out the dough and cut it into strips. Oddly enough, the thinner the dough, the easier it will be to work with. Thick strips seem to be less pliable and break. Also, the wider you cut them, the fewer strips you will need to deal with when weaving.

Start the lattice by putting one strip in each direction.

Then add strips in twos alternating horizontal and vertical. With each addition, carefully peel up the needed bit of crust to get an over and under effect.

Tip: the more pieces there are on the pie, the harder they are to weave. I have been known to weave only about the center third of the strips and lay the outer strips all the way across without weaving them. Honestly, no one notices!

Totally woven:

Cheated:

Sometimes there is not enough edge crust to flute the edge. You can use scraps leftover from the lattice to fix this.

Put the pieces onto the edge and work them in so they look as though they belong.

Then use your fingers to flute the crust - 2 fingers of the right hand, index finger of the left.

Now just pop it into the oven and Voila! 45 minutes or so later, delicious pie!

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Goals

I was raised with a Scots/German dedication to setting goals. I imagine this was to teach me discipline and help me maintain a forward momentum. I'm sure it was not to create a constant sense of inadequacy.
That was just a bonus.